demonbelthazor | PRIVATE -- NFB

Belthazor winced as he turned to throw a shirt into the suitcase on his bed. The wound Angel had given him was healing, but slowly. Fortunately, Phoebe was still sick and he made certain to keep his injured side away from her while they slept. But she was getting better and was bound to get frisky soon, and he had to think of an excuse for the wound.

He and Phoebe were going away for the holiday weekend. He couldn't bring her home (and demons didn't celebrate Thanksgiving, anyway). She couldn't bring him home, either. They agreed that getting away from the school and all the chaos and drama was a good idea. Just the two of them for a few short days, no outside world to intrude. Except he knew even while vacationing he'd be plotting ways to purge Angelus of his unwanted soul.

The other members of the JA had proven completely unresponsive about his warnings the night the resouling of Angelus had gone down and his later attempt to get them to brainstorm ideas on how to restore him. Fuck them. Initially he wanted to keep them together so that they would be there for Angelus' return, but now he'd realized they were more interested in planning to go to Vegas than to help their leader. He was done with them. There were others who had proven much more interested in restoring Angelus. He'd work with Darla, maybe Dru, or alone. Maybe Angelus would be disappointed in his leadership abilities -- or lack thereof -- but he felt he could be more effective working on his own or with those with more of an interest in seeing Angelus return. He'd have to appreciate that.

He couldn't talk to Phoebe about his plans. Angelus had killed her former roommate, and she would never forgive him for that. He was torn between his love for Phoebe and his duty for Angelus, walking the knife's edge in between. Keeping his two roles separate was difficult, but not impossible.

He just had to remember to leave time for homework.